Fireworks village, also known as Govan Colliery Houses, was a company village in Scotland belonging to the Dixon family who ran the Govan Iron Works and Govan Colliery. The inhabitants were chiefly coal miners and their families who worked in the Govan Colliery. The company also built a Methodist church and a school. At the time, its location was a short distance outside the City of

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, the largest town in Scotland; no trace now remains in the 21st century, with the site occupied by the now inner-city neighbourhood of

Govanhill Govanhill () is an area of Glasgow, Scotland, situated south of the River Clyde between Pollokshields, the Gorbals, Strathbungo, Crosshill, Polmadie and Queen's Park. Historically part of Renfrewshire, Govanhill had the status of a police ...

(the village was roughly located at Bankhall Street at the Govanhill Picture House.)

History

The Govan Colliery, also known as the Little Govan Colliery, was worked from at least the 18th Century, William Dixon having started there as colliery manager in the 1770s. The colliery and later the iron works remained in the control of the Dixon family from then until 1873 when it became a limited company, William Dixon Ltd., and was no longer a family firm. Between 1783 and 1785 the Govan Waggonway was built between the colliery and the

River Clyde The River Clyde (, ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde, in the west of Scotland. It is the eighth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the second longest in Scotland after the River Tay. It runs through the city of Glasgow. Th ...

to the north.George Dott, ''Early Scottish Wagonways'', St Margaret's Technical Press Limited, London, 1947 In 1811, Dixons built a waggonway linking the colliery with the

Glasgow, Paisley and Johnstone Canal The Glasgow, Paisley and Ardrossan Canal, later known as the Glasgow, Paisley and Johnstone Canal, was a canal in the west of Scotland, running between Glasgow, Paisley, Renfrewshire, Paisley and Johnstone which later became a railway. Despite ...

at Port Eglinton, the

terminus. The canal was opened in 1810. In 1820, Dixons bought the lands of

and the colliery. In 1830, an Act of Parliament authorized the construction of the

Polloc and Govan Railway The Polloc and Govan Railway was an early mineral railway near Glasgow in Scotland, constructed to bring coal and iron from William Dixon's collieries and ironworks to the River Clyde for onward transportation. When the Clydesdale Junction Railwa ...

(sic) which was completed in 1840. It extended the old tramway past Port Eglinton to Windmill Quay on the Clyde in one direction and to

Rutherglen Rutherglen (; , ) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, immediately south-east of the city of Glasgow, from its centre and directly south of the River Clyde. Having previously existed as a separate Lanarkshire burgh, in 1975 Rutherglen lo ...

in the other direction. The line now forms part of the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

. In the 1860s the first tenements were built, which later formed the Burgh of Govanhill. The houses belonging to Fireworks were gradually demolished. In 1906, Garden Square, the last of the old Fireworks Village, was demolished.

Geography

The village lay about south of

Glasgow City Chambers The City Chambers or Municipal Buildings in Glasgow, Scotland, has functioned as the headquarters of Glasgow City Council since 1996, and of preceding forms of municipal government in the city since 1889. It is located on the eastern side of the ...

, just to the north of the junction of the turnpike between Glasgow and Carmunnock via

Cathcart Cathcart (; , )
is an area of

to Paisley road (now Allison Street). What is now Bankhall Street lies in the middle of the old village, which consisted of Hosie's Land and Garden Square to the west of the turnpike and Engine Row, the Back Close, Carter Row, the Cuddy Row and Graham Square to the east. There was an outlier to the north called School Square (lying between Calder Street and Govanhill Street on the West side of the main road) after the Govan Colliery School, also built by Dixons, which lay even further North.Smart, p18?

Amenities

* Methodist church * School * Reading room with copies of national newspapers

References

{{Reflist * Lewis, Samuel (1846). "A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland" * Glasgow University Archive Service. "Records of the Poloc and Govan Railway and the Clydeside Junction Railway, Scotland" * Smart, Aileen (2002). "Villages of Glasgow, Vol 2", * MacLehose,James (1886) "Memoirs and portraits of one hundred Glasgow men" Former populated places in Scotland History of Glasgow Mining communities in Scotland Govanhill and Crosshill